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The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) is a national organization with the mission “to transform the way buildings and communities are designed, built and operated, enabling an environmentally and socially responsible, healthy, and prosperous environment that improves the quality of life.” The USGBC provides green building educational programs and is the developer of LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, an internationally recognized green building certification program. Come hear from the local USGBC Central Texas – Balcones Chapter on how solar interacts with green building and within the USGBC.

Pedernales Electric Cooperative is the largest co-op in the country and serves many Austin-area residents as members. PEC has been mapping out an impressive vision for expanding solar energy in their portfolio, with some exciting new activities underway.

Come hear from PEC solar leadership on their rationale for ramping up solar and their plans moving forward.

Solar fever is spreading in the Austin area! A passionate group of solar supporters is working to bring more solar to Wells Branch.

It all started with a solar fair on October 28. A couple passionate Wells Branch residents put together a great event with speakers and tabling by local solar companies, Austin Energy and Oncor (Wells Branch is split between the Austin Energy and Oncor service areas). About 200 people from the community showed up to learn more about solar. As one of the speakers, I provided some basic information and introduced the solarize concept – where members of a community work together to get educated about solar and pool their buying power to contract for a discount with a solar company.

Now, an enthusiastic group of Wells Branch residents have created the Solarize Wells Branch group. They’ve already put out a request for proposals from solar installations companies. They’re working to get residents signed up to participate in the program.

If you live in Wells Branch or a nearby neighborhood, check out the Solarize Wells Branch flier and the Solarize Wells Branch website for lots more detailed info. Enrolling will get you connected with the organizers, who will help get your questions answered. Don’t worry though – this doesn’t in any way commit you to actually purchasing a solar installation.

Due to scheduling, we’re postponing the Pedernales Electric Cooperative presentation until January. Join us this month for an end-of-2014 and Election Night celebration along with an update on the Austin Generation Plan. We’ve done a lot this year and there is no doubt that 2015 will be a big one. Come celebrate Austin’s solar progress with us and get a jump start on the challenges that lie ahead.

Solar energy isn’t just for homeowners and businesses, some of the wonderful nonprofits in Austin are seeing the benefits as well. As an affordable energy option, solar can help keep costs low and allow nonprofits to spend their precious resources on other needs.

There has been a flurry of new projects in the nonprofit sector, broadening the reach of solar energy in Austin, so we’re doing another round of this popular program. Come hear from some of the local nonprofit leaders who have embraced solar.

The Council passed a resolution that doubles the local solar goal to 200 megawatts and the residential and commercial solar goal to 100 megawatts by 2020. The resolution also said that Austin Energy should replace power from the old polluting Decker gas plant with 600 megawatts of large scale solar by 2017.

But it will be up to the new City Council to make sure these ambitious new goals are implemented.

There are so many candidates running in many of the districts that it might seem difficult to learn what they all think about solar. That’s why Solar Austin is co-hosting a series of candidate forums on Austin Energy issues.

Please join us for your district candidate forum and the mayoral candidate forum.

Please click on the links and share the Facebook events with your friends, neighbors and co-workers.

Candidates will answer questions on a variety of energy topics including solar, climate change and keeping electric bills affordable for low-income customers.

If you don’t know which district you are in, you can look it up. Type in only your street address. For example, if you live at 1234 Barton Springs Rd, Apt 44, type in only “1409 Barton Springs Rd.”

The best way to make sure the next Austin City Council is supportive of solar is for solar supporters to have a presence at these events and learn which candidates will be most likely to keep solar growing in Austin.

This month we will feature the work of the oldest 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations in the US that does work in the sustainable architecture landscape architecture and planning arena. Come hear Pliny Fisk III share 4 decades of his experience advancing innovative technologies, projects, and programs as co-Director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems.

Pliny will give a brief overview of the center’s 12 methods of design and planning and then discuss his wide ranging work with a diverse set of clientele. His projects have included the green specification of the US Pentagon, work on the US Mexican border, the first Green Builder program in the US, a sustainable village in China’s coal region, a proposal for hurricane ravaged areas such as Galveston, a new city proposal to rehabilitate the vast destruction of Morocco’s phosphate mines, and Solar Decathlon support for both U.T. and Texas A&M.

With a background in architecture, landscape architecture, and the systems sciences, Pliny has made pivotal contributions to the sustainability movement for more than four decades by developing replicable prototypes, protocols and policy initiatives.

His policy initiatives have included the Austin Green Building Program, the AIA’s Environmental Resource Guide, and greening the Texas Architecture + Engineering Guidelines.

Pliny has received several national and international recognitions including the Lewis Mumford Award, the 1992 Earth Summit Award (with the City of Austin), the U.S. Green Building Council’s Sacred Tree Award, and The Passive Solar Pioneer Award. Pliny was on the faculty at Ball State University, The University of Texas at Austin, and Texas A&M University, and held teaching positions at the University of Oklahoma and Mississippi State University.

The installation sector of the solar industry is growing fast and creating good green collar jobs in places like Austin. These are jobs that can never be outsourced because a crew of installers needs to actually bring the solar panels and other hardware to homes and businesses and set it up. You can’t do that over the phone, so the local solar market is a dependable source of jobs.

Chartered by City Council to provide recommendations for the Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2024, the Austin Generation Resource Planning Task Force has been working diligently since April to help guide our city’s energy investments. The Task Force recently released its final report and solar figures prominently in its vision of our energy future.

The current City Council has only a few months remaining to leave its mark and the Austin Energy Resource, Generation and Climate Protection Plan to 2024 is a big opportunity to do just that.

Come hear about the specific solar-related recommendations the Task Force has made and hear perspectives from a panel of local solar leaders on what the provisions would mean for our community.